FiiO E17 "ALPEN" - First Impression + Final Thought - Page 236

Quote:

Originally Posted by OPTiK 

Anyone us this amp/dac with JH16s? Any hiss? Overall improvement?

I use it with my Shure SE-215s and find no hiss at all.  I never have to go beyond the 0 gain setting.

Just as an additional note, ReplayGain does not permanently alter your music file in any way; it just adds some metatag data that can be read by software (i.e. Foobar, Winamp, etc) and some music players (not Apple devices, see below) so that alterations in the volume can be made before playback.

I also use ReplayGain, and it is quite convenient, as the music is all normalized to one volume (I believe it is 89 dB).

Sound Check is a proprietary Apple technology similar in function to ReplayGain. It is available in iTunes and on the iPod.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rikkun 


I believe the ReplayGain scanner comes with the standard installation of foobar.
Just go to a random playlist. Right click the tracks you want to scan -> ReplayGain, and then whataver option you want to choose.
To enable ReplayGain go to Preferences -> Playback.

I'm sure I've seen it before so thanks :) This will be great.

Anyway. I'm pausing my NFB 12.1 buy for right now as I wait for more stuff.

I'll be getting an O2 for the moment and do this

Foobar WASAPI out-->SPDIF output>>>Toslink optical cable-->E17-->L7-->O2-->headphones.

And then I'll sell both and get the NFB 12.1 :)

I'm curious about how that E17/O2 combo works out for you.  I'm contemplating that for my desk to drive my K702s.

Regarding hiss: I hear a constant low-level hiss in my Shure 535s via the E17, and changing the gain setting doesn't change that (since it affects the relative level of the actual music playing) It is so low however that once the music starts it's not an issue (most of my album's background hiss tends to be louder already)

Regarding Sound Check/ Replay Gain: Just to clarify: Sound Check is actually 2 things: 1) the tag that Apple's iDevices use to adjust volume and 2) the algorithm in iTunes that generates and writes these volume tags (getting increasingly worse in an effort to speed things up) As a consequence, there are actually 3rd party apps that use the Replay Gain algorithm instead to write the aforementioned tags, even taking into consideration per-album settings; so it can actually be usable.

I personally would be interested in light of creating some playlists, but the most commonly used iVolume is so hilariously over-priced for being a 1-trick pony (that on top of that is based largely on free open-source software that -other- people wrote) that I'm sticking with adjusting the volume manually (even though that meant getting a DAC with remote controlled volume for convenience, among other benefits) If anybody has alternative suggestions on OS X, I'd love to hear about them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheGrumpyOldMan 

Regarding hiss: I hear a constant low-level hiss in my Shure 535s via the E17, and changing the gain setting doesn't change that 

Thats strange because I have the same setup and have no hiss. One or two songs have a little bit in the background but the rest of my collection doesn't have it. I've found my e17 makes some noise depending on where i place it. I had it attached to the back of my notebook with velcro but there was some occasional interference.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tilpo 


Except Sound Check is track based only. The nice thing about ReplayGain is that you can normalize the volume between different albums or different tracks, whatever you choose. I personally only listen to albums, so for me this is more convenient that the Sound Check function of iDevices.

Oooh, I did not know this. Learned something new today.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyogen 

If you use 0db gain on the E17.......what's the point? Just wondering.. I love the sound of 12db so much more and there is no distortion at all.... So not sure why people would use 0dB gain. Are they even utilizing the E17 at all? I can't hear much of a difference at all with 0dB... 6, and especially 12 sounds wonderfully full and alive

It's been known with the E17 on higher gains than what your headphones or earhones need will cause more static, a clicking sound that will disappear but is still annoying, and more "noise" and possibly if you set it wrong with volume memory on and had a very easy to drive IEM on 12dB gain and 40 volume that it could risk blowing your ears. Or even worse than blowing your ears out, destroying the driver. I'm kidding about the driver being more important than your ear but there is this point. Clieo's tests that he did claim 12dB to be more reponsive and have more bass(people like this, especially most that own this device due to it's low price and thus people that don't need super neutral accuracy but a fun "FiiO" sound) but that alone isn't enough for some that will want to play it safe and not want any annoying artifacts in their music or risk destroying a diaphram somewhere.

I have not done or remember seeing any "objective" tests yet for the 6dB and 12dB more lively and bassy claim so I will just leave it as a "claim". It is known that a higher volume and a more bassy sound(if the bassy part of the claim was true) will subjectively influence a user's descision on what sounds good. I will even fall to this initially as extended use and also experience on what to hear for and what not is also needed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by hyogen 

Since I have volume near 100% on my dap, I usually only have the e17 on 20 volume for my iems and maybe 37 for dt880
I don't hear any artifacts or clipping.

It happens to some. I asked about it before.

Bascically it happens more "frequently" with headphones or earphones that don't require the power of that gain level. If I tried a PL11 or another super easy to drive earphone on 12dB gain I would get a click click click click noise filled with "noise". It would sometimes auto disappear and sometimes it requires you to raise the volume all the way up or to a certain point. At which the noise will then disapear and then you can lower it back down. This has not happened to me after I started using "correct" gain settings at which the headphones are mostly suited for. It has happened once or twice but the frequency was a huge substantial drop. And it happens randomly and it may not be audible while music is playing so some may never notice it.

What DAP are you sticking with now Hyogen?